“Well, my brothers have a little bit of a bigger brain, so they are a little bit smarter than me,” declared a second grade student I see who just happens to have apraxia. “I don’t believe they are smarter than you, or have a bigger brain than you,” I retorted. He was so sure though. Not in a defeated, depressed way. No, more in a matter of fact, I know
Apraxia is a journey. Speech apraxia is a journey, but global apraxia? Even MORE SO. So many skills to work on. So many things to improve. So many negative prognostic indicators to plow through. The good news is that Ashlynn doesn’t know anything about prognostic indicators. She doesn’t know how heavily loaded she is in the negative column. Not yet anyway. When I first had her receive services she was
I was finally able to make a new game for my kiddos with enough time to spare for St. Patrick’s Day! This game follows the same idea as my other repetitive games. Kids have a game board, in this case, a black pot: The kids draw a card from the card deck. If the card contains a shamrock with gold coins, the child collects the amount of coins
I don’t know why I am obsessively thinking about prognosis lately, but I am. I am required to give a prognosis when evaluating children. I’ve had to stare at a prognosis in my own child. I received a prognosis once. I was seventeen and I balled my eyes out in my mom’s car. I was a senior in highschool, a starter and captain of the girl’s basketball team when my
Professional development today found me in a room full of teachers checking boxes about our personality characteristics. In the left column, characteristics were decidedly rigid, black and white, and defeatist. On the right were characteristics that spoke of resilience, “can do” attitudes, and a try again spirit. I felt a little bad going through my own (private) personality. I marked off mostly a “mixed” personality which was in the middle.
Cognitive testing, psychological evaluation, IQ, psychologist, neuropsychologist. What do all these have in common? What do they have to do with a child who has a speech delay? What does it matter? Tests of intelligence, commonly referred to as “cognitive” testing in the schools, are standardized measures usually administered to children as part of a complete battery of testing a child will receive when being considered for special education services